The wedding reception started out horribly.
Francis was beautiful and having fun, from her point of view everything was going well. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for Lara. Her cousin Darcy was up to her usual shtick of handing off her baby to every female family member and cooing at them about how good a mom they’d make. It had been an embarrassing reality in Lara’s life since she was twelve. Darcy would hand off one of her kids and hammer on about children and how great they were and how no woman was fulfilled until she’d birthed at least three.
Lara kind of wanted kids one day, but it honestly wasn’t her end goal in life. She’d just grin at Darcy awkwardly and try her best not to give away how much she hated those moments when all her relatives would crowd her and take pictures as if they expected her to bulge outwards in pregnancy the second she was in contact with a child.
She didn’t become pregnant when she held baby Christopher, instead the infant threw up all over her dress and made Lars hold him as far away from her as possible while trying not to throw up herself.
“He likes you,” her cousin laughed while Lara stared at her in annoyance. Then it was just a mad scramble to find her something to wear. Unfortunately not many people packed a spare dress to a wedding, so she wound up in a lended dress from her great aunt Mildred that just did not flatter her at all. It smelled like old lady, had a disgusting floral pattern on it, and did not flatter her figure in the slightest.
“I spent an entire pay check on that dress,” she grumbled to herself as she sat alone at one of the tables, mourning that beautiful blue dress and praying the baby vomit would come out of it. When she had kids she wouldn’t hand them off to random relatives like Darcy did, in fact she wouldn’t even bring them to big events like weddings. She didn’t even want babies and toddlers at her own wedding, they were always bored and caused problems anyway.
She didn’t feel like dancing anymore, or even standing up. She’d just waste the rest of the reception away in misery, snuffling from allergies and wearing an old lady’s dress. She’d eat and avoid being seen in pictures because that dress was just hideous. Whenever her sister looked back on this wonderful day now there it would be like Lara hadn’t even been there.
She was glum for a while until a guy maybe a year younger than her stepped out of the bathroom with an absolutely hideous stain on the front of his shirt. He caught her staring and ran his eyes up and down her body taking in that awful old lady dress and approached. Lara bit her lip until he sat down on the chair next to her and looked over at her.
He was handsome in that office worker kind of way, kind of sweaty, looking a little choked out by his tie, and he had that hideous orange stain on his shirt.
“That dress looks a little poorly sized,” he commented.
“Cousin’s baby threw up on mine. I don’t normally dress like my grandma’s curtains,” Lara admitted while dying that ugly stain. “You?”
“My cousin got into my aunt’s spray tan and blasted me with it,” he replied. “Now my mom wants me kept out of pictures.”
“When I get married I’m leaving all the obnoxious relatives out,” Lara proclaimed in a matter of fact way. “Small ceremony, short reception, relaxing evening.”
“That sounds lovely,” he laughed. “You a cousin to the bride or...”
“I’m her sister,” Lara explained. “Now that Francis is married all my relatives are going to turn on me and start asking when I’m getting hitched. I don’t even have a boyfriend so they’re going to make me feel like a failure until I do.”
“Interesting,” the guy nodded. “It seems we’re siblings in law now, Greg is my older brother.”
“Seriously?” Lara asked with a laugh. “My name’s Lara then, and I’m a third year finance major with a minor in music.”
“Minor in music?” The guy asked.
“Yeah, finance is more of a job thing, what I really want to do is play in symphony orchestra, you know the type that play movie soundtracks and millionaire galas. My parents didn’t think it was a feasible career so they pushed me towards finance. I mean, I’m good with numbers so it really isn’t that hard. I could do it as a career if need be,” Lara explained. “Still though, if I could get hired to play music I would.”
“Well then, my name’s Jamie, I’m a first year general studies student. I took a year off out of high school to go backpacking around Europe. Now my parents want me to root in place and live here. Honestly I wish I could live in France or Spain or something. America is so boring,” Jamie explained.
“Nice to meet you Jamie,” Lara mused as she saw some of her aunts wander past. “Oh, and looks like the rumours of us hooking up just started.”
“Two boys from one family married two girls from another family,” Jamie spoke in a mock old aunt voice. “Isn’t that fascinating? It’s like one of those lame twin weddings but not.”
“Yeah,” Lara sighed with a laugh before glancing at Jamie and taking in his appearance. Behind the ugly orange stain on his shirt he looked kind of handsome, he’d travelled, his older relatives didn’t look half bad... she felt something in her chest, a faster beating of her heart. He was looking at her, but past the old granny dress. He was taking in her curves and her hair, and the way she smiled and laughed. No it couldn’t be. He wasn’t into her, she couldn’t be into him. They’d never hear the end of it from family, besides if they broke up they’d have really awkward family gatherings after that.
They were technically related through the law, but why did Francis and Greg get to shut that dating door just because they’d met first. She was feeling all sorts of flustered and he was really cute. He didn’t even care her face was a little scratched up and puffy from the bouquet. When he next saw her free from the allergies.
“Wanna dance?” They asked in unison before blushing hard. “Oh, yeah, sure...”
And so rumours began to fly the second they were out there, she was blushing as he showed off the fact he could dance, and he was smiling stupidly at her, shocked he dancing with a girl as gorgeous as Lara.
“Look at that, isn’t that so cute,” One of Jamie’s aunts whispered.
“Double wedding,” her great aunt chuckled.
“Expect a lot of brunette grandchildren,” her cousin laughed while elbowing her mom.
“Smile for the camera sweetie!” Her mom exclaimed, suddenly wanting to capture her daughter in that ugly dress made of curtains.
“Mom!” Lara exclaimed while blushing to the roots of her hair.
“This is going to make such a cute story,” her mom sighed dreamily and Lara bit her lip feeling like she was some sort of circus act all for just dancing with her brother in law’s little brother. He was cute okay, and she wasn’t about to let Francis make a cute guy off limits just because she’d married his brother. Her family making a big ordeal out of it could be damned. Besides it was just a dance, it wasn’t like she was going to marry him...